The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

Whether they like it or not, travelers have become used to the fact that many airlines now reward frequent-flier miles based on how much your ticket costs: the more you spend, the more miles you get. But Spirit is flipping that idea on its head, and will instead offer bonus miles to customers who buy the cheapest fares — for a limited time.

Spirit’s promotion is only good through August, but it will give customers who buy tickets with a base fare of $75 or less 1,000 bonus miles. If you’ve paid to become part of the airline’s “$9 Fare Club,” you’ll get 2,500 miles.

Spending more than $75? There are bonus miles for you, too:

Bonus miles are in addition to the miles a traveler would usually earn for a Spirit flight, as the airline still hands out miles based on distance flown (along with Alaska Airlines and Frontier). You’ll have to be in the top tier of Spirit’s frequent-flier program to get full value, however. Other members will earn 50% of the miles flown.

This is a clear dig at Spirit’s competitors like American, Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue, and Virgin America, which all reward points based on fares.

“We want to fly in the face of changing loyalty programs and reward customers for saving money, not spending it,” Bobby Schroeter, Spirit’s VP of consumer marketing , said in a statement.